J. V. Snellman (1806-1881), was the
un-official intellectual leader and political strategist of the 19^th
century Finnish national movement. In 1863, he was nominated to the Senate, the
highest executive body of the Grand Duchy of Finland. As a Senator, he became
the prime mover behind many important projects – for example, the establishment
of the national Finnish currency and the reform of the educational system –
which created the necessary preconditions for the independence of Finland in
the following century.  He was also a
professional philosopher. Especially in his early works, he was a rather
orthodox Hegelian; his textbook Rättslära
was written as an introduction to Hegel’s theory of law. We show that in his  - otherwise not very original - work Snellman consistently
used the Hegelian notion of recognition
(Anerkennung) as the key
concept.  In this, his interpretation is in
accordance with the most recent Hegel-scholarship.